Citation

Stith SM, Rosen KH, McCollum EE, Thomsen CJ. J. Marital Fam. Ther. 2004; 30(3): 305-318.

Affiliation

Human Development Department, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Northern Virginia Center, Falls Church 20043, USA. sstith@vt.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1752-0606.2004.tb01242.x

PMID

15293649

Abstract

An experimental design was used to determine outcomes of a domestic violence-focused treatment program for couples that choose to stay together after mild-to-moderate violence has occurred. Forty-two couples were randomly assigned to either individual couple or multi-couple group treatment. Nine couples served as the comparison group. Male violence recidivism rates 6 months after treatment were significantly lower for the multi-couple group (25%) than for the comparison group (66%). In contrast, men in the individual couple condition were not significantly less likely to recidivate (43%) than those in the comparison group. In addition, marital satisfaction increased significantly, and both marital aggression and acceptance of wife battering decreased significantly among individuals who participated in multi-couple group therapy, but not among those who participated in individual couple therapy or the comparison group.

Language: en